[tlapinski]

Just saw this online.

Harwich herring permits sell out
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HARWICH PORT – A line of people seeking a herring fishing license spilled out of the Natural Resource Department’s door, onto the waterfront deck, and wound its way down the handicap-accessible ramp on Saturday morning.
The throngs of people were in a celebratory mood because Harwich, through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission initiative, will open its Johnson’s Flume herring run for the first time since 2004, when the harvest was halted amid concerns about declining fish populations.
A group of Wampanoag Tribe members joined the line around 11 a.m., to also buy permits.
Federally recognized tribe members aren’t required to carry a license to fish or hunt, but Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Secretary Talia Landry told the Times that they were purchasing permits to protest the town’s decision to reopen the flume, and to protect what she calls the tribe’s “herring relatives.”
“We have seen no sound justification to reopen the herring run and allow fishing for sport and recreation that will deplete our already threatened fish counts.”
Talia Landry
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe secretary
The town sold out of the 150 permits that were available, including three that Tribe members purchased.
“We’re here to say that the herring don’t consent,” said Landry, who was protesting alongside Native Environmental Ambassadors, a group of indigenous youth who helped to pass a tribal Rights of Herring law, that decrees herring have a right to migrate freely, procreate abundantly, and safely make their journey back to sea.
Bobby Parr, of Harwich, was also in line to purchase a permit. Parr’s stepfather, he said, would take him to the run when he was a child.
“Back then anyone could take the herring,” recalled Parr, who said he plans to harvest herring one to two times at most.
“I want to do like the Native Americans do and plant our small garden with the herring,” said Parr.
Division of Marine Fisheries Senior Marine Fisheries Biologist Bradford Chase was happy about the turnout, but said he understands why the Tribe is concerned about the harvest.
“It’s a good approach to be conservative this year and not take too many,” said Chase. “But we would like to see some access for people who haven’t been able to get fish for over 20 years.”
The town and the state enact multi-year harvest plan
The Harwich Select Board voted unanimously to allow a limited recreational harvest at Johnson’s Flume at the West Reservoir in the Bell’s Neck Conservation Area starting in April, reviving a traditional practice.
Harwich is the first Cape town to implement a plan under the framework. Two other plans — one for the Nemasket River in Middleboro and Lakeville, and one for Herring Brook in Pembroke — have been approved through the same commission process but have not yet been put into active use with permits and scheduled harvest windows.
During Monday’s Select Board meeting, Landry said the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe would be submitting an objection letter to the board and to the Massachusetts delegation.
“We see this action as another attempt to degrade our natural resources that we rely on for personal and community needs,” she said at that time. “We have seen no sound justification to reopen the herring run and allow fishing for sport and recreation that will deplete our already threatened fish counts.”
In 2022, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which coordinates fishery management across Atlantic coastal states, approved a plan allowing towns such as Harwich to reopen herring runs for recreational harvesting under strict limits, with oversight by state fisheries agencies.
Chase said the state reached out to the Tribe to notify them of this measure in 2022 but didn’t hear back. Chase was unclear if the state recently communicated with the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department about the run’s official opening.
The Tribe understands that the town has worked to gain authority for new harvest regulations pursuant to the 2022 plan.
“It should be noted that the sustainable fisheries management plan predates the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s findings in its Rights of Herring resolution that found herring numbers to be at a critical, all time low,” said Landry during the Select Board meeting.
Additionally, said Landry, a memorandum of agreement was signed between the Division of Marine Fisheries and the tribe, which states that the harvesting of herring is an aboriginal right for sustenance purposes only.
“The state’s actions in continuing to support these regulations and herring permits is not consistent with its recognition of the tribe’s aboriginal fishing rights,” she said.
What are Rights of Nature laws?
In April 2023, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council enacted an emergency resolution on the rights of herring presented by the Youth Native Environmental Ambassadors, according to earlier USA Today reporting, resulting from a critical depletion of the herring population as measured by the tribe’s natural resources personnel. At that time, the Tribe felt the state failed to consult with the Tribe prior to implementing herring conservation and harvest measures.
State and town say protective measure will be put in place
The town, said Chase, chose a 3% harvest target, which translates to about 17,000 herring. The town could have issued 600 permits, which would have allowed for 50,000 plus fish to be harvested, said Natural Resources Department Director Stephanie Ridenour.
“We can close early or implement what we need for management to make the harvest sustainable,” said Ridenour.
The town considers herring harvest a cultural celebration
During the dawn of colonization, settlers, said Chase, noticed the herring would begin to run in the spring when there wasn’t a lot of food available.
“It was like a gift from the ocean,” he said.
Eventually, commercial herring fishing led to a dependency on the runs for coastal towns across the state, Chase said.
“On and off the Cape it’s become a deep tradition to use these fish for food, for bait, for sustenance and to make some money,” Chase said.
In the 1990s, there was an overharvest and a declining conservation ethic, said Chase. Commercial fisherman, he said, were taking buckets of fish. With droughts compounding the problem in 2000 and 2001, herring numbers plummeted, he said. “The state moved quickly to shut it down. But the goal was to always to find a way to open once we had more numbers,” he said.
Ultimately, Chase wants to see more open runs open. But he admits that smaller herring runs are not doing well.
“The fish haven’t come roaring back,” he said.
And that’s exactly what Landry is afraid of. The herring, she said, have not had an adequate opportunity to regain their once-thriving populations.
“The herring are continually obstructed by the greediness of the civilization that is around them,” she said. “The decline is due to the behavior of people that have not known how to harvest responsibly.”
Staff writer Rachael Devaney can be reached at rdevaney@capecodonline. com.
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